Life, 1911-06-29 · page 11 of 45
Life — June 29, 1911 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The main illustration shows a well-dressed man in military regalia toasting with a skeleton figure at a dinner table, titled "TO THE FOURTH!" **The satire:** This appears to be a memento mori scene—a darkly humorous commentary on mortality and fate. The man's formal dress and decorations suggest wealth or status, yet he's dining with Death itself, suggesting that no amount of social standing protects one from death. **The accompanying text** discusses Life magazine's editorial approach to humor, noting it aims for "real humor" rather than "high class clientage." It mentions the magazine's ambiguous or subtle jokes sometimes confuse readers—like when they reported a "Hancock boy was bitten by a dog" and received confused responses. The overall message critiques how Life's sophisticated satire can be misunderstood by audiences expecting obvious comedy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Important to Advertisers This editorial, from the “ Daily Min- ing Gazette,” of Houghton, Mich., we reprint for the benefit of all advertis- ers, and from a sense of duty. LIFE 1S CHEERFUL O our notion of real humor a little New York magazine known as Lire contains the highest grade pro- duced. For years we have been a reg- ular reader of this magazine, and while we admired it in every form we always supposed there was something rather ex- clusive in our enjoyment. In other words, we always supposed Lire’s cir- culation rather limited to high class clientage. Our impression as to limita- tion was changed last week. Some months ago one of our report- ers, in telling of the death of a Calumet person, said that “she was left a widow by the death of her husband.” Lire re- printed that item with an appropriate heading. And we are sure that at least “to THE FourTH!” one-half of the subscribers of the Ga- sette also read Lire and we are also sure that they read every line in Lire every week, for this item was on a rear page and hidden from view to all except the most curious. We heard from that item in Lire, from every friend we ever supposed we had and others. It cost quite a few ex- planations and some cigars. People who didn’t know anybody on the force per- sonally called up the office and “kidded” us about it. One fellow in Boston had the nerve to telegraph, col- leet, requesting us to look on a certain page of Lire. We congratulate Lire on the fun it had out of our ambiguity. We remem- ber once reporting that a “ Hancock boy was bitten by a dog in the west end.” And the Gazette received no end of free notices thereat. It is good to feel that you are noticed, even in the newspaper world. And we wish to con- gratulate Lire particularly on its proven advertising value. The editor of the G will furnish affidavits for all advertisers that Lire may wish to con- vince i a long trust that has no crooks. DOES you TURTLE DOVE? “YES, PET, BUT DON'T CROWD ME OFP THE PeRcit,” LOVE YOUK 'ITTLE, coifticbooks.com ‘